Method for glycosylating hydroxylysine residues

ABSTRACT

This invention relates to a multifunctional enzyme having lysyl hydroxylase and glycosyltransferase activity and to the use of the enzyme in glycosylating hydroxylysine residues. In particular this invention relates to a method for producing glycosyltransferase activity, which comprises that a nucleotide sequence encoding lysyl hydroxylase and glycosyltransferase activity is introduced and expressed in a chosen host and the protein product is recovered from the host cell or from the culture medium.

This application is the U.S. National Stage application of PCT Application No. PCT/FI01/00528, filed Jun. 4, 2001, which claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(a)-(d) of Finnish Patent Application 20001328, filed on Jun. 2, 2000.

This invention relates to a multifunctional enzyme. In particular this invention relates to a method for producing an enzyme capable of glycosylation of hydroxylysyl residues of polypeptides or peptides comprising such residues. This invention relates in particular to a method for producing glucosyltransferase and galactosyltransferase enzyme and to a nucleotide sequence encoding these activities. This invention relates also to a method for glycosylating hydroxylysyl residues of polypeptides or peptides comprising such residues.

Collagens are the extracellular proteins found essentially in all tissues. They play a crucial role in maintenance of the structural integrity of tissues and by binding to cell receptors in regulation of cellular behaviour. They form a diverse range of high organized supra-molecular assemblies in the extracellular matrix generating structural scaffolds to keep cells in their place within the tissue, connect tissues within an organ and facilitate attachment and migration of cells. Furthermore, the collagens like other extracellular proteins, bind to growth factors and other regulatory components of cells and modulate cellular metabolism. To date, 19 genetically distinct collagen types have been identified (Kielty et al., 1993; Kadler, 1994; Prockop and Kivirikko, 1995). The collagen molecule is composed of three polypeptide chains, which coil each other into a triple-helical structure. Some of the collagen types, such as type I, II, and III collagens, have a rod like structure without any interruptions in the helical region, whereas in the other types triple-helical regions are interrupted with multiple short nonhelical sequences. The collagen molecules are aggregated in tissues into supra-molecular structures, where they form fibrils, beaded filaments, net-like or other kind of structures depending on the type of collagen.

The biosynthesis of collagen includes several post-translational modifications, which include hydroxylation of lysyl residues, galactosylation of hydroxylysyl residues and glucosylation of galactosylhydroxylysyl residues. These are events occurring in the endoplasmic reticulum before triple helix formation. Hydroxylysine occurs in Y position of the repeating X-Y-Gly triplet within the helical region of collagen molecule. Hydroxy-lysine also occurs in the sequence of nonhelical telopeptide regions of some collagen types, when glycine is replaced either by serine or alanine (Kivirikko et al., 1992; Kielty et al., 1993). The hydroxy groups of hydroxylysyl residues serve important functions in providing attachment sites for glycosyl residues, either monosaccharide galactose or disaccharide glucosylgalactose. The hydroxy groups also play crucial role in the formation of inter- and intramolecular collagen crosslinks. The biological role of hydroxylysyl linked carbohydrates, collagen-specific structures, is not clear. The extent of lysine hydroxylation as well as glycosylation of hydroxylysyl residues is very variable, both between collagen types and within the same collagen in different tissues and at different ages (Kivirikko et al., 1992; Kielty et al., 1993).

Hydroxylysine occurs also in some proteins which are not defined as collagens but which contain collagenous domain. Collectin proteins contain collagenous regions linked to C-terminal carbohydrate recognition domains common to the family of calcium-dependent carbohydrate-binding proteins known as C-type lectins. At least mannan-binding protein, conglutinin, the pulmonary surfactant proteins A and D and CL-43 belong to the group of collectin proteins. Other examples of proteins having a collagenous domain are core-specific lectin (CLS), C1 q complement and acetyl-cholinesterases. Bovine serum lectin CL-43 belongs to the group of collagen-like proteins. Some hydroxylysine residues are found in proteins which do not have collagenous domains. Examples of such proteins are anglerfish somatostatin-28, human tissue plasminogen activator (rtPA), human CD4 receptor (rCD4) and a related chimeric protein (rCD4-IgG) (Valtavaara 1999).

Lysyl hydroxylase (EC 1.14.11.4) catalyzes the hydroxylation of lysyl residues in collagens (or in other proteins having lysyl residues) in a reaction that requires Fe²⁺, 2-oxoglutarate, O₂, and ascorbate (Kivirikko et al., 1992). Three enzymes (LH1, LH2, LH3) with LH activity have been isolated and characterized in human (Hautala et al., 1992; Valtavaara et al., 1997, 1998; Passoja et al., 1998) and mouse tissues (Ruotsalainen et al., 1999), LH1 from chicken tissues (Myllylä et al. 1991) and from rat (Amstrong and Last 1995). The LH2 isoform is present in two alternatively spliced forms, LH2a and LH2b (Valtavaara 1999; Yeowell and Walker, 1999).

The cDNA sequence and the deduced amino acid sequence of a nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans, are also known (SWISS-PROT: 20679). A phylogenetic analysis shows that the lysyl hydroxylase isoforms are derived from an ancestral gene by two gene duplication events. Isoforms 1 and 2 are more closely related, and have been brought about by a more recent duplication than the less closely related isoform 3 (Ruotsalainen et al. 1999), which is an earlier ancestral derivative of C. elegans lysyl hydroxylase.

Galactosyl hydroxylysyl glucosyltransferase (GGT, EC 2.4.1.66) adds glucose to some of galactosyl hydroxylysyl residues in the collagen in a reaction that requires Mn²⁺ and UDP-glucose (Kivirikko and Myllylä, 1979). The enzyme has been purified from chicken embryos (Myllylä et al., 1976) and its catalytic and molecular properties has been characterized (see Kivirikko and Myllylä, 1979).

As described in the above referred literature the cDNAs/genes encoding LH 1, LH2 and LH 3 have been characterized in human and in mouse, LH1 from chicken, rat and bovine (GenBank Accession number o77588) and the ancestral parent of LH1, LH2 and LH3 from C. elegans. However, the prior art does not describe the genes or cDNAs encoding glucosyltransferase or galactosyltransferase activity from any source. Although glucosyl-transferase has been purified from chicken embryos and its catalytic and molecular properties has been characterized (Kivirikko and Myllylä, 1979) and galactosyltransferase has been partially purified and characterized from chicken Risteli et al. (1976a and b) the molecular cloning of the enzymes has not been successful and the structure of the enzymes is not known. Accordingly, the production of enzymes capable of glycosylation of hydroxylysyl residues by using genetic engineering techniques has not been possible this far.

SUMMARY

It is an aim of the present invention to eliminate the problems associated with the prior art and to provide a method for recombinant production of the enzymes capable of saccharifying the hydroxylysyl residues in polypeptides or peptides having hydroxylysyl residues. In particular this invention provides the nucleotide sequence encoding glucosyltransferase (E.C. 2.4.1.66) and galactosyltransferase (E.C. 2.4.1.50) activity. Glucosyltransferase and galactosyltransferase are enzymes involved in post-translational modifications of collagen biosynthesis. This invention is based on our findings that the protein produced by human LH3 cDNA and Caenorhabditis elegans cDNA is responsible for both lysyl hydroxylase (LH) and glucosyltransferase (GGT) and galactosyltransferase (GT) activity, and that there is no need to process the protein in order to get the activity.

This invention provides a method for producing an enzyme activity capable of glycosylation of hydroxylysyl residues in polypeptides or peptides having these residues or an enzyme having the glycosylating activity and lysyl hydroxylase (LH) activity, which comprises that the nucleotide sequence encoding LH is introduced and expressed in a chosen host and the protein product is recovered from the host cell or from the culture medium. The enzyme may have glycosylating activity although it does not have lysyl hydroxylase activity.

More specifically, the method is mainly characterized by what is stated in the characterizing part of claim 1.

In particular this invention provides a method for producing glucosyltransferase or glucosyltransferase and lysyl hydroxylase (LH). Furthermore-this invention provides a method for producing galactosyltransferase (E.C. 2.4.1.50) or galactosyltransferase and lysyl hydroxylase or all these three enzyme activities.

The nucleotide sequence encoding LH may originate from any suitable source having this enzyme activity. Suitable sources are organisms having collagen or protein having collagenous domain or collagen-type protein, because these organisms generally also produce lysyl hydroxylase, or it may be an organism not having the mentioned collagen proteins, but still producing lysyl hydroxylase. The origin may be a eukaryote having only one form of lysyl hydroxylase, such as C. elegans, which belongs to nematodes and metazoa or the origin may be an organism producing a lysyl hydroxylase isoform being a derivative of the ancestral lysyl hydroxylase, such as LH3 producing organisms. LH 3 may preferably be from mammalian origin, more preferably from human, bovine, porcine and/or from murine origin. The nucleotide sequence may be synthetic or at least partly synthetic. Within the scope of invention are also nucleotide sequences encoding lysyl hydroxylases isolated from new organism groups provided that the nucleotide sequence encodes also an enzyme activity capable of glycosylating hydroxylysyl residues in polypeptides or peptides having these residues.

In the studies relating to the multifunctionality of the LH3 enzyme, it was found that the LH3 activity can be removed by genetic modification of the nucleotide sequence encoding LH3 without affecting the saccharifying activities.

This invention thus provides also a nucleotide sequence encoding an enzyme having only saccharifying activity, which comprises that the nucleotide sequence encoding LH comprises a modification resulting in partial or complete loss of lysyl hydroxylase activity.

The saccharifying activity may be glucosyltransferase and/or galactosyltransferase activity.

The present invention provides also a glycosyltransferase enzyme produced by the methods of this invention and preferably purified to homogenity. The enzyme product may comprise a factor facilitating the purification of the enzyme. Glycosyltransferase enzyme according to this invention has enzymatic activity in multimeric or monomeric form, in other words, when a substantial amount of the enzyme is in multimeric or monomeric form the glycosyltransferase activity is measurable (is higher than the background; see for example Table IV in Example 10).

The present invention results in many advantages. It makes it possible to produce enzymes capable of saccharifying the hydroxylysyl residues in collagen proteins by recombinant methods. This opens up the possibility to modify the inter- and intramolecular collagen crosslinks, in the formation of which hydroxy groups play a crucial role. It is also possible by the methods of this invention to saccharify collagen-type proteins, proteins having collagenous domain or generally polypeptides or peptides having hydroxylysyl residues. The present invention makes it also possible to prepare synthetic peptides which contain hydroxylysine residues and where saccharification corresponds the in vivo situation. The advantage of this type of polypeptides is that they do not have antigenic properties i.e. they do not result in antibody production and do not cause rejection.

The discovery to find the GT activity, in addition to the GGT and LH activities, in LH3 molecule is significant. It reveals the gene, which provides enormous power to study the function of hydroxylation of lysyl residues, galactosylation of hydroxylysyl residues and glucosylation of galactosylhydroxylysyl residues in an animal model. Manipulation of one gene makes possibly to alter all the reactions at the same time by generation of a gene construct knocking out the whole function of the gene. In the contrary, selective inhibition of the activities in the gene enables the study of these post-translational events separately.

Other features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description and appended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

The foregoing text, as well as the following detailed description of the present invention, will be better understood when read in conjunction with the appended figures in which:

FIG. 1. LH and GGT activity in cells transfected with human LH3 cDNA. (A) Sf9 cells were transfected with a His-tagged construct and LH3 and GGT activities were measured in different time points. (B) Cos-7 cells were transfected with a native LH3 construct, GGT activity was measured in different time points. Nontransfected cells were used as controls.

FIG. 2. Analysis of protein produced by LH3 cDNA. (A) Protein produced by the His-tagged LH3 cDNA construct in Sf9 cells, purified by a nickel affinity column and analyzed by western blot by using anti-His tag antibody. Lane 1, crude insect cell lysate; lane 2, flow through; lane 3, wash; lane 4, elution with 100 mM imidazole; lane 5, elution with 200 mM imidazole. Molecular weight markers are indicated. (B) Immunoprecipitation of Sf9 cells transfected with the His-tagged LH3 construct by anti-His tag antibody (lane 1). Precipitated proteins were analyzed by SDS-PAGE and visualized by silver staining. Bands corresponding to IgG polypeptide chains were also present in immunoprecipitate. Sf9 cells were used as a control (lane 2). (C) Immunoprecipitation of a Cos-7 cell lysate with anti-GFP antibody. The cells were transfected by the GFP-tagged LH3 construct. Imunoprecipitated proteins were analyzed by SDS-PAGE and immunostaining was carried out by an anti-GFP antibody. Lane 1, cell lysate: lane 2, cell medium; lane 3, cell lysate obtained from cells transfected by the vector (pEGFP-N1); lane 4, cell medium of the cells transfected by the vector.

FIG. 3. Cell free translation of the LH3 construct. (A) Radioactively labelled proteins produced in a cell free translation system were analyzed by SDS-PAGE and autoradiography. Lane 1, LH3 cDNA; lane 2, no DNA added; lane 3, β-galactosidase cDNA as a control. Molecular size markers are indicated. (B) GGT activity (given as dpms above the column) produced in cell free translation system supplemented by LH3 cDNA. The activity value is a mean (±S.D.) of three different measurements, activity without any DNA supplement is shown as a background activity.

FIG. 4. Mutated LH3 constructs transfected in Sf9 cells. (A) Schematic picture of the locations and consequences of mutations in the LH3 construct. Numbers in the scheme indicate the position of the amino acids of the translated protein. Mutations of the sequence are also indicated. The amino acids translated after the frame shift are shaded. (B) The mutated proteins produced by Sf9 cells 72h after the transfections. The protein analysis was carried out by western blot using anti-His-tag antibody in the staining. Lane 1, mutation 1; lane 2, mutation 2; lane 3, mutation 3; lane 4, mutation 4; lane 5, LH3 without mutation; lane 6, Sf9 cell lysate.

FIG. 5. GGT activity in different lysyl hydroxylase isoforms. All LH isoforms as His-tagged versions were produced in insect cells (see Example 8). GGT activity (given as dpms above the column) was measured in cell lysate 72 h after the transfections. Sf9 cell lysate was used as a control.

FIG. 6. Nucleotides 214-2447, amino acids 1-738 (SEQ ID NO 5 and SEQ ID NO 11).

FIG. 7. Nucleotides 289-2455, amino acids 25-738 (SEQ ID NO 6 and SEQ ID NO 12).

FIG. 8. Nucleotides 289-2455, mutation 1, amino acids 25-231 normal, amino acids 232-356 modified (SEQ ID NO 7 and SEQ ID NO 13).

FIG. 9. Nucleotides 289-2455, mutation 2, amino acids 25-520 normal, amino acids 521-738 missing (SEQ ID NO 8 and SEQ ID NO 14).

FIG. 10. Nucleotides 289-2455, mutation 3, amino acids 25-738, nucleotide 2222 A->C, amino acid 669 D->A (SEQ ID NO 9 and SEQ ID NO 15).

FIG. 11. Nucleotides 289-2455, mutation 4, amino acids 25-668 normal, amino acids 669-698 modified (SEQ ID NO 10 and SEQ ID NO 16).

FIG. 12 shows GT activity in different human lysyl hydroxylase isoforms. Lysyl hydroxylase isoforms as His-tagged versions were produced in E. coli cells. The cells were grown for 5 hours at 30° C. after induction by IPTG, stored at −20° C. for up to one week and the cell supernatant was used in GT (black square) and GGT (open square) activity assay. The values (above the columns) are expressed per mg protein.

FIG. 13 shows gel filtration of the supernatant of E. coli cells expressing human LH3 protein. The soluble protein produced by the cells were fractionated by Bio-Gel A 0.5 column as described in detail in Example 10. The elution of GT (square with a cross) and GGT (triangle) activities in the fractions are indicated. The elution positions of known protein standards are indicated: apoferritin, amylase, serum albumin, carbonic anhydrase, cytochrome C.

FIG. 14 shows analysis of proteins bound to nickel column. Proteins produced by His-tagged LH3 cDNA construct in E. coli cells were run through the nickel column, and eluted by imidazole as described in Example 10. Analysis of proteins was carried out by Western blotting using anti-His-tag antibody. Lane 1, crude E. coli supernatant; lane 2, flow-through; lane 3 and lane 4, wash; lane 5; elution with 100 mM imidazole, lane 6, elution with 200 mM imidazole.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Definitions

By “saccharifying enzymes” is meant here enzymes capable of saccharifying the hydroxylysyl residues in polypeptides or peptides having these residues. Saccharifying enzymes mean within the scope of this invention enzymes capable of glucosylation of galactosylhydroxylysyl residues and galactosylation of hydroxylysyl residues. The term “glycosylation” is used here synonymously with the term “saccharification”.

By “glycosyltransferase” is meant here glucosyltransferase and galactosyltransferase activity.

By “glycosyl residues” are meant here either monosaccharide galactose or disaccharide glucosylgalactose.

“Glucosyltransferase” (E.C. 2.4.1.66) means here an enzyme capable of glucosylation of galactosylhydroxylysyl residues. Synonyms for glucosyltransferase are collagen glucosyltransferase and galactosyl hydroxylysyl glucosyltransferase. The abbreviation GGT is used for this enzyme activity.

“Galactosyltransferase” (E.C. 2.4.1.50) means here an enzyme capable of galactosylation of hydroxylysyl residues. Synonyms for galactosyltransferase are procollagen galactosyltransferase and hydroxylysine galactosyltransferase.

By “lysyl hydroxylase” is meant here an enzyme capable of hydroxylation of lysyl residues in polypeptides or peptides having these residues. The abbreviation LH is used for this activity. The various isoforms of this enzyme are called LH1, LH2 and LH3. The LH2 is present in two alternatively spliced forms, LH2a and LH2b. In this invention lysyl hydroxylase (LH) means in particular an enzyme having glycosyltransferase acitivity, more specifically glucosyltransferase and/or galactosyltransferase activity. By lysyl-hydroxylase (LH) is meant within the scope of this invention also lysylhydroxylase, which is not enzymatically active, because the enzyme is not in active form. As is described later, the enzyme may be in monomer or multimer form, which does not have lysylhydroxylase activity, but it has glucosyltransferase and/or galactosyltransferase activity.

In the sequence listing the SEQ ID-NOs present the following nucleotide or amino acid sequences:

-   SEQ ID NO 1 mouse LH3 cDNA -   SEQ ID NO 2 mouse LH3 amino acid sequence -   SEQ ID NO 3 C. elegans LH cDNA -   SEQ ID NO 4 C. elegans LH amino acid sequence -   SEQ ID NO 5 human LH3 cDNA nucleotides 214-2447 -   SEQ ID NO 6 human LH3 cDNA nucleotides 289-2455 -   SEQ ID NO 7 human LH3 mutation 1 -   SEQ ID NO 8 human LH3 mutation 2 -   SEQ ID NO 9 human LH3 mutation 3 -   SEQ ID NO 10 human LH3 mutation 4 -   SEQ ID NO 11 human LH3 amino acid sequence, which corresponds to     nucleotides 214-2447. -   SEQ ID NO 12 human LH3 amino acid sequence, which corresponds to     nucleotides 289-2455 -   SEQ ID NO 13 human LH3 amino acid sequence, which corresponds to     mutation 1 -   SEQ ID NO 14 human LH3 amino acid sequence, corresponds to mutation     2 -   SEQ ID NO 15 human LH3 amino acid sequence, corresponds to mutation     3 -   SEQ ID NO 16 human LH3 amino acid sequence, corresponds to mutation     4 -   SEQ ID NO 17 human LH3 cDNA nucleotides 1-2745, amino acids 1-738 -   SEQ ID NO 18 human LH3 amino acid sequence -   SEQ ID NO 19 human LH3 nucleotides 1027-1284 -   SEQ ID NO 20 human LH3 amino acids 271-356 -   SEQ ID NO 21 human LH1 cDNA -   SEQ ID NO 22 human LH1 amino acid sequence -   SEQ ID NO 23 human LH2a cDNA -   SEQ ID NO 24 human LH2a amino acid sequence -   SEQ ID NO 25 human LH2b cDNA -   SEQ ID NO 26 human LH2b amino acid sequence     Nucleotide Sequences

A nucleotide sequence encoding lysyl hydroxylase (LH) means within the scope of this invention a nucleotide sequence from any possible source which is capable of encoding an enzyme activity of which biological function is equivalent to the enzyme activity of LH. The nucleotide sequence encoding LH may originate from any suitable source having this enzyme activity. Suitable sources are organisms having collagen or protein having collagenous domain or collagen-type protein, because these organisms generally also produce lysyl hydroxylase or it may be an organism not having the mentioned collagen proteins, but still producing lysyl hydroxylase. The origin may be a eukaryote having only one form of lysyl hydroxylase, such as C. elegans, which belongs to nematodes and metazoa or the origin may be an organism producing a lysyl hydroxylase isoform being a derivative of the ancestral lysyl hydroxylase, such as LH3 producing organisms. LH 3 may preferably be from mammalian origin, more preferably from human, bovine, porcine and/or from murine origin. The nucleotide sequence may be synthetic or at least partly synthetic.

The nucleotide sequences encoding lysyl hydroxylase isoforms which do not have glycosyltransferase activity are not within the scope of this invention. Such nucleotide sequences are for example those sequences which encode human LH1 and LH2, which are not closely related to the ancestral LH form and LH3, and which do not seem to encode glycosyltransferase activity in their natural form. However, when these nucleotide sequences are genetically modified to have glycosyltransferase activity they are within the scope of this invention.

By a nucleotide sequence encoding glucosyltransferase and/or galactosyltransferase activity is meant within the scope of this invention a nucleotide sequence encoding LH from any possible source as described above. The nucleotide sequence encoding LH may originate from any suitable source having this enzyme activity as described above.

The isolation and characterization of nucleotide sequences encoding mammalian LH3 are described in Valtavaara et al. (1998), Passoja et al. (1998) and Ruotsalainen et al. (1999). These methods can be applied for the isolation and characterization of any desired nucleotide sequence encoding LH.

A nucleotide sequence encoding glucosyltransferase and/or galactosyltransferase activity may mean any genetic material having that capability. It may be cDNA, mRNA, gene or part of a gene or a partly or completely synthetic gene sequence that encodes the same or a functionally equivalent nucleotide sequence or gene product. The nucleotide sequence encoding a functionally equivalent gene product may be a nucleotide sequence comprising a nucleotide sequence selected from the group consisting of:

-   (a) nucleotide sequences having at least the partial nucleotide     sequence of any one of SEQ ID NO 1, SEQ ID NO 3, SEQ ID NO 5, SEQ ID     NO 6, SEQ ID NO 8, SEQ ID NO 9, SEQ ID NO 10, and/or SEQ ID NO 17; -   (b) nucleotide sequences encoding a polypeptide having at least the     partial amino acid sequence of any one of SEQ ID NO 2, SEQ ID NO 4,     SEQ ID NO 11, SEQ ID NO 12, SEQ ID NO 14, SEQ ID NO 15, SEQ ID NO 16     and/or SEQ ID NO 18; -   (c) nucleotide sequences which differ from the nucleotide sequences     of (a) and/or (b) due to the degeneracy of the genetic code; -   (d) nucleotide sequences hybridizing under stringent conditions to a     nucleotide sequence of (a), (b) and/or (c); -   (e) nucleotide sequences encoding a polypeptide having an amino acid     sequence which shows at least 60% identity, preferably at least 70%     identity, more preferably at least 80%, most preferably at least 90%     identity to the sequences contained in (b); and -   (f) nucleotide sequences encoding a polypeptide having an amino acid     sequence which shows at least 35%, preferably at least 40%, more     preferably at least 50%, still more preferably at least 60%, most     preferably at least 70%, still most preferably at least 80% identity     to a sequence contained in SEQ ID NO 20.

The term “hybridization” in this context means hybridization under conventional hybridization conditions, preferably under stringent conditions such as described by, e.g. Sambrook et al. (1989).

As hybridization probe can be used nucleic acid molecules that have exactly or substantially the same nucleotide sequence as SEQ ID NO 19 encoding the amino acids 271-356 of human LH 3 or fragments of said sequence. Alternatively is used the entire nucleotide sequence encoding human LH3 (SEQ ID NO 17) or mouse LH3 (SEQ ID NO 1) or C. elegans LH (SEQ ID NO 3). The fragments used as hybridization probes can also be synthetic fragments obtained by conventional synthesis techniques, the sequence of which is substantially identical to that of the nucleic acid sequences of the invention. Once genes hybridizing to the nucleic acid sequences of the invention have been identified and isolated it is necessary to determine the sequence and to analyze the properties of the proteins coded for by said sequence.

The term “hybridizing nucleic acid sequence” includes fragments, derivatives and allelic variants of SEQ ID NO 1, 3 or 17 encoding an identical or substantially similar protein or a biologically active fragment thereof. Fragments are understood to be parts of nucleic acid sequences long enough to code for the described protein (or substantially similar protein) or a biologically active fragment thereof. The term “derivative” means in this context that the nucleotide sequences of these molecules differ from the sequences of the above-described nucleic acid molecules in one or more positions and are highly homologous to said sequence.

“% Identity” means here percentage of identical amino acids being present at corresponding positions when two amino acid sequences are aligned to give the maximal amount of identical nucleotides or amino acids at corresponding positions.

In the studies of Valtavaara et al. (1998) it has been shown that the overall identity in amino acid sequences between LH 3 and LH1 or between LH3 and LH2 is 59%. The identity between all lysyl hydroxylases is 47%. The similarity values between the isoforms are 83 and 85%, respectively. Over 80% identity in amino acid sequences (more than 10 amino acids) are found in certain parts of human lysyl hydroxylase 3. Less identity is seen in the region of amino acids 271-356 (nucleotide sequence SEQ ID NO 19, amino acid sequence SEQ ID NO 20) (32% identity between isoforms).

Altered nucleotide sequences which may be used in this invention include deletions, additions or substitutions of different nucleotide residues resulting in a sequence that encodes the same or a functionally equivalent nucleotide sequence or gene product. The nucleic acid product itself may contain deletions, additions or substitutions of amino acid residues, which result in a functionally equivalent subunit.

When the nucleotide sequence encoding LH is isolated it may be introduced into a suitable host organism being capable of expressing the nucleotide sequence. The sequence may be linked into an expression vector under a regulatory region capable of regulating the expression in a chosen host.

Expression Systems

Various methods known to the person skilled in the art can be used to construct expression vectors, which contain LH coding sequence and appropriate transcriptional/translational control signals. These methods comprise in vitro recombinant DNA techniques, synthetic techniques and in vivo recombination. Such techniques are described for example in Maniatis et al. 1989 and Ausubel et al. 1989.

A variety of host-expression vector systems may be used to express a nucleotide sequence encoding LH. These comprise microorganisms, such as bacteria transformed with recombinant plasmid DNA or cosmid DNA or bacteriophage DNA, expression vectors, fungi or yeast transformed with recombinant fungus or yeast expression vectors, animal cell systems infected with appropriate vectors, insect cell systems infected with recombinant virus expression vectors (e.g., baculovirus as exemplified in the examples), plant cell systems infected with recombinant virus or plasmid expression containing the nucleotide sequence encoding LH.

Additionally, the LH and/or glycosyltransferase coding sequence of the invention may be expressed in transgenic non-human animals wherein the desired enzyme product may be for example recovered from the milk of the transgenic animal. The LH and/or glycosyltransferase coding sequence may be expressed also in humans and used in gene therapy.

A number of suitable transcription and translation elements may be used in the expression vector depending on the host/vector system used. These include constitutive and inducible promoters. For example, when cloning in bacterial systems, inducible promoters such as pL of bacteriophage λ, plac, ptrp, ptac (ptrp-lac hybrid promoter) and the like may be used; when cloning in insect cell systems, promoters such as the baculovirus polyhedron promoter may be used; when cloning in plant cell systems, promoters derived from the genome of plant cells (e.g., heat shock promoters) or from plant viruses (e.g., the 35S RNA promoter of CaMV) may be used; when cloning in mammalian cell systems, promoters derived from the genome of mammalian cells (e.g., metallothionein promoter) or from mammalian viruses (e.g., the vaccinia virus 7.5 K promoter, the adenovirus late promoter;) may be used; when generating cell lines that contain multiple copies of the nucleotide sequence encoding LH, EBV-, BPV- and SV40-, based vectors may be used with an appropriate selectable marker.

In bacterial systems a number of expression vectors may be advantageously selected depending upon the use intended for the LH and/or glycosyltransferase expressed. For example, when large quantities of the polypeptides of the invention are to be produced, vectors which direct the expression of high levels of protein products that are readily purified may be desirable. Such vectors include for example certain E. coli expression vectors (Ruther et al. 1983, Inouye and Inouye 1985 and Van Heeke and Schuster 1989).

In yeast, a number of vectors containing constitutive or inducible promoters may be used (Ausubel et al. 1988). Preferred system useful for cloning and expression of the proteins of the invention uses host cells from the yeast Pichia, in particular Pichia pastoris and Hansenula polymorpha.

If plant expression vectors are used, the expression of sequences encoding the LH and/or glycosyltransferase of the invention may be regulated by a number of viral promoters. Viral promoters such as the coat protein promoter of TMV (Takamatsu et al. 1987 or 19S RNA and 35S RNA promoters of CaMV (Brisson et al. 1984),) may be used. These constructs can be introduced into plant cells using microinjection, electroporation, direct DNA transformation, Ti plasmids, Ri plasmids, plant virus vectors, etc.

Insect expression system may be an alternative expression system which could be used to express LH and/or glycosyltransferase of the invention as described in the examples.

In mammalian host cells, a number of viral based expression systems may be used such as an adenovirus expression vector.

For efficient translation of inserted LH and/or glycosyltransferase coding sequences specific initiation signals may be needed. These signals include the ATG initiation codon and adjacent sequences. The inclusion of appropriate transcription enhancer elements and transcription terminators, etc may enhance the efficiency of expression.

Transgenic non-human animals may be a preferred expression system for the recombinant production of the LH and/or glycosyltransferase of the invention, because the desired polypeptide may be recovered from the milk of the transgenic animal. The DNA sequence encoding the LH and/or glycosyltransferase may be operably linked to a promoter optionally together with other required or optional regulatory sequences capable of effecting expression in mammary glands.

Stable expression of the LH and/or glycosyltransferase product is preferred and hence, for example cell lines which stably express LH and/or glycosyltransferase may be engineered.

Preferably, the LH and/or glycosyltransferase of the invention is expressed as a secreted protein. When the engineered cells used for expression of the proteins are non-human host cells, it is often advantageous to replace the human secretory signal peptide of the LH with an alternative secretory signal peptide which is more efficiently recognized by the host cell's secretory system. The appropriate secretory signal sequence is particularly important in obtaining optimal fungal expression of mammalian genes.

It may be desirable to choose a host cell strain, which can modulate the expression of the inserted sequences, or modify and process the gene product in a desired way. Such modifications (e.g., glycosylation) and processing (e.g., cleavage) of protein products may be important for the function of the protein. Different host cells have characteristic and specific mechanisms for the post-translational processing and modification of proteins. To ensure the correct modification and processing of the foreign protein to be expressed suitable cell lines or host systems can be chosen. Eukaryotic host cells which possess the cellular machinery for proper processing of the primary transcript, glycosylation, and phosphorylation of the gene product may preferably be used. Such mammalian host cells include COS, CHO, HeLa, VERO, BHK, MDCK, 293, WI38, etc. However, glucosyltransferase and galactosyltransferase are active also in non-glycosylated form.

Identification of the Host Organisms Capable of Expressing LH and Glycosyltransferase Activity

The presence of the enzyme coding sequence inserted in the expression vector can be detected by DNA-DNA or DNA-RNA hybridization using probes comprising nucleotide sequences that are homologous to the LH coding sequence, respectively, or portions or derivatives thereof. Alternatively in hybridization is used probes generated by PCR.

The recombinant expression vector/host system can be identified and selected by PCR by using oligonucleotides from inserted sequence. Alternatively the identification and selection can be based upon the presence or absence of certain “marker” gene functions (e.g., phenotype, resistance to antibiotics, occlusion body formation in baculovirus, etc.).

Furthermore, transcriptional activity of LH coding region can be measured by hybridization assays. RNA can be isolated and analyzed by Northern blot using a probe homologous to the LH coding sequence or particular portions thereof. Alternatively, total nucleic acids of the host cell may be extracted and assayed for hybridization to such probes.

The expression of the enzyme product can be assessed immunologically, for example by Western blots, immunoassays such as radioimmuno-precipitation, enzyme-linked immunoassays and the like.

The expressed enzyme of the invention, which can be isolated from the host cell extract, or if secreted into the culture medium, from the culture medium, is purified preferably to homogeneity. Nickel-affinity chromatography or other purification techniques known in the art can also be used, such as ion exchange chromatography, and reverse-phase chromatography.

The lysyl hydroxylase activity can be assayed by a method based on the hydroxylation-coupled decarboxylation of 2-oxo(1-¹⁴C) glutarate (Kivirikko and Myllylä 1982), synthetic peptide IKGIKGIKG (SEQ ID NO: 27) was used as a substrate.

The glucosyltransferase activity can be assayed as described in Myllylä et al. (1975). The method is based on the transfer of radioactively (tritium) labelled glucose from UDP-glucose to galactosylhydroxylysyl residues in calf skin gelatin substrate and on the specific assay of the product of the enzyme reaction after alkaline hydrolysis.

In order to detect or produce galactosyltransferase activity, similar genetic constructions are prepared as were prepared to detect or produce glucosyltransferase activity. Alternatively the genetic constructions are modified for example to produce the polypeptide as a dimer or comprise a factor facilitating the purification of the enzyme.

The galactosyltransferase activity can be assayed as described in Myllylä et al. (1975). The method is based on the transfer of radioactively (tritium) labelled galactose from UDP-galactose to hydroxylysyl residues in calf skin gelatin substrate and on the specific assay of the product of the enzyme reaction after alkaline hydrolysis.

Genetic Modification of a Nucleotide Sequence Encoding LH and Glycosyl-transferase Activity

By the genetic modification of a nucleotide sequence encoding LH, which results in partial or complete loss of lysyl hydroxylase activity is meant any genetic modification which has similar effect to the activity of the protein. The genetic modification may be made by any suitable conventional or molecular biology method well known in the art. The modification is preferably made by recombinant DNA techniques, such as by site directed mutagenesis or deletion.

Genetic modification of a nucleotide sequence encoding lysyl hydroxylase, which results in partial or complete loss of lysyl hydroxylase activity is exemplified here by making genetic changes to the nucleotide sequence encoding human LH3. The modification may comprise a deletion at the carboxy terminus. In particular the modification may comprise a deletion of about 200 amino acids, in particular the deletion of 218 amino acids from the carboxy terminus.

Furthermore the modification may comprise a genetic change resulting in a nucleotide sequence which encodes a changed amino acid at a certain position or positions. Here we have shown that a genetic change resulting in alanine instead of aspartic acid at position 669 of the amino acid sequence removes the lysyl hydroxylase activity of the protein.

By the genetic modification of a nucleotide sequence encoding LH and glycosyltransferase activity, which results in partial or complete loss of glycosyltransferase activity is meant any genetic modification which has similar effect to the activity of the protein. The genetic modification may be made by any suitable conventional or molecular biology method well known in the art. The modification is preferably made by recombinant DNA techniques, such as by site directed mutagenesis or deletion.

If the sequence is modified such that the molecule consists of only 231 amino acids of human LH3 sequence, the protein has no GGT or GT activity. This result indicates that the amino-terminal portion of the molecule is not sufficient to generate the GGT or GT activity.

The genetic modification of a nucleotide sequence encoding LH, may mean also any genetic modification of nucleotide sequences encoding LH, but not glycosyltransferase, such as nucleotide sequences encoding LH1 and LH2, which results in the expression of glycosyltransferase activity. Such genetic modification may be made by any suitable conventional or molecular biology method well known in the art. The modification is preferably made by recombinant DNA techniques, such as by site directed mutagenesis or deletion. As an example, the modification may be directed to those nucleotides encoding amino acids differing from the amino acids of LH3. The modification may preferably comprise modification directed to the nucleotide sequence corresponding to human LH3 cDNA encoding the amino acids 271-356 (SEQ ID NO 19).

The Production and Use of Glycosyltransferase

Glycosyltransferase enzyme is produced by expressing a nucleotide sequence encoding lysyl hydroxylase in a suitable host organism as described above. The enzyme may be recovered and isolated from the culture medium or cell extract by conventional methods and preferably purified to homogenity. In a preferred embodiment of this invention the nucleotide sequence encoding lysyl hydroxylase is modified to encode a factor facilitating the purification of the enzyme, for example an amino acid sequence tag, such as His-tag. This amino acid sequence tag is able to bind to the affinity column in affinity chromatography. As an example we have prepared a nucleotide sequence encoding a polypeptide comprising His-tag, which binds to nickel-affinity column. This construction remarkable facilitates the purification of glucosyltransferase.

In connection of this invention it was found out that in order to be active lysyl hydroxylase should appear as a dimer, whereas glucosyltransferase and galactosyltransferase appears to be active as a multimer and monomer. Accordingly, genetic constructions are prepared which encode an active enzyme.

Enzymes having glucosyltransferase and/or galactosyltransferase activity are used for glycosylating hydroxylysine residues in polypeptides or peptides having these residues. Such residues are for example in collagen, in collagenous or collagen-type or in other proteins or in synthetic or in partly synthetic polypeptides of peptides. The glycosylation reaction is carried out in the presence of additives and factors necessary for the function of the enzyme, such as buffers, cofactors and glycosylresidues, such as UDP-glucose or UDP-galactose. For example a suitable buffer for glucosyltransferase (or galactosyl-transferase) is 0.1 M NaCl, 0.05-1 mM dithiothreitol and 50 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.4 (at 20° C.), Mn is used as cofactor and UDP-glucose (or UDP-galactose) as sugar residue.

Production of LH, GGT and GT Activity

In the examples we have exemplified the production of LH, GGT and GT activity in eucaryotic and virus expression systems.

As described in the examples, we have shown in baculovirus and eucaryotic expression systems that the expression of LH3 cDNA produced both LH activity and GGT activity. The appearance of the activities in the cells occurs simultaneously, without any lag between the activities which might suggest that expression of LH caused the simultaneous induction of the transcription of the GGT gene. When LH3 was expressed with a His tag at the amino-terminus, the protein with GGT activity bound to the nickel affinity column, and eluted by imidazole indicating that the GGT activity is present on the protein having his-tag in its structure. Immunoblot analysis of the eluate indicated that the protein purified by the affinity column corresponds in size to the recombinant LH3. Results from cell free translation experiments further support the finding that LH and GGT activities are coming from the same protein. Since only one protein corresponding to the size of LH3 is translated in the cell free system supplemented with the LH3 cDNA sequence, and GGT activity is present after translation, this protein has GGT activity.

Upon overexpression of LH3 in insect cells, most of the activity is retained inside the cell, only about 35% of the activity being secreted, however. It should be noted, however, that at later time points, the relative proportion of the activity of the medium increased, probably due to lysis of the cells. In Cos-7 cells, the majority of the GGT activity was secreted into the medium, when followed 48 hours after the transfection. Microscopic examination revealed, that in some cells the protein was retarded in the endoplasmic reticulum, an agreement with the data obtained with LH1 (Kellokumpu et al., 1994). It is probable that overexpression of the protein overloads the retention capacity and therefore the protein starts to be secreted into the medium. This was seen in microscopy by the appearance of fluorescent signals in Golgi complex. A difference in the amount of secretion between insect cells and Cos-7 cells can be explained by different capacities of the cells to retain proteins in the ER, but it may be also due to the fact that the total expression of LH3/GGT per cell is higher in Cos-7 cells than in insect cells.

The molecular weight of human LH3 corresponds to about 85,000 in SDS-PAGE (Passoja et al., 1998). GGT isolated from chick embryos has a molecular weight of 78,000 (Myllylä et al., 1976). It is not known, if there are many GGTs in vivo, and it is also not known, if the molecular weight of GGT differs in different species. It is also possible that there is a difference in a glycosylation of the protein produced in vitro expression system compared to the protein isolated from tissues. Only one size protein is produced by LH3 cDNA in insect cells and Cos-7 cells. Furthermore, only one protein is produced in a cell free system supplemented with LH3 cDNA sequence. In all these systems the protein has the molecular weight of about 85,000, which corresponds to the molecular weight of LH3.

These data indicate, that no processing of LH3 is required to generate the GGT activity. Our data with the anti-His-tag antibodies against the His-tag present at the amino-terminus of LH3 and with anti GFP antibodies against the GFP-tag present at the carboxy-terminus of LH3 do not indicate that there are multiple forms of LH3 in cells. Furthermore, our screening from different tissues does not give any evidence about alternative splicing for LH3 mRNA.

We have prepared polyclonal antibodies against synthetic peptide corresponding to amino acids 283-297 of human LH3 sequence (Wang et al., 2000), a region, which is highly dissimilar between lysyl hydroxylase isoforms. Antibody binding to that region of the LH3 molecule partially inhibited GGT activity. We also used antibodies, which were prepared against GGT isolated as a homogenous protein from chick embryos. The binding sites of these antibodies are not known, but as observed earlier (Myllylä, 1981), these antibodies inhibited chick embryo GGT activity. The binding of the antibody partially is prevented binding of the substrate and the inhibition was more effective when tested with high molecular weight substrate (Myllylä, 1981). When antibodies were tested with the enzyme produced by the human His-tagged LH3 construct in Sf9 cells, a similar inhibition of the GGT reaction was observed. The data obtained by LH3 and GGT antibodies are in agreement with the suggestion that LH3 is identical to GGT. GGT antibodies furthermore suggest a similarity of binding sites of the antibodies between chicken and human enzymes. These antibodies were also tested with GGT produced by human skin fibroblasts, and as seen in Table II, the LH3 and GGT antibodies showed similar inhibition of GGT under in vivo conditions.

We have indicated also the third function for lysyl hydroxylase, the galactosylation of hydroxylysyl residues in collagens. Thus we have shown that the same gene, C. elegans lysyl hydroxylase gene or human LH3, is able to hydroxylate lysyl residues, galactosylate the hydroxylysyl residues and glucosylate the galactosylhydroxylysyl residues, the consecutive steps needed to build hydroxylysine linked carbohydrates in collagens. A trifunctional character for a protein is not a common feature, but it is found for example in enzymes involved in lipid metabolism as well as in purine and pyrimidine metabolisms.

E. coli expression system was used to produce GT activity from LH3 cDNA. High activity was found in the supernatant of the transfected cells indicating E. coli system suitable to recognize GT as well as GGT activity from human LH3 or C. elegans cDNA. Most of the LH3 molecules can be found in insoluble form, however, and this insoluble fraction contained only a part of the enzyme activity and therefore was not studied further. The GT activity of the soluble fraction of the expression system was eluted in a gel filtration in the similar profiles, GT profile following the activity of GGT. Two activity peaks were observed in the elution, the main activity peak corresponded to a molecular weight of about 20-30 kDa and the minor peak to about 70-100 kDa, when compared with elution positions of globular standards. The data suggest the enzyme activities to be adsorbed to a column resulting in a retarded elution. Similar retardation phenomenon in a Bio-Gel A 1.5, Sephadex G-150 and Sephadex G-100 columns has been reported when studied GGT isolated from chick embryos (Myllylä et al. 1976 and 1977). It is worth noticing a small difference of retardation between GT and GGT activities, however.

It is remarkable to notice that no LH activity can be found in E. coli expression system, when human LH1, LH2a, LH2b or LH3 was used as cDNA of the expression vector (data not shown), although the LH activity have been found in a baculovirus system with these cDNAs (Valtavaara et al. 1997, 1998, Passoja et al. 1998, Yeowell and Walker 1999). The data obtained from Bio-Gel A 1.5 column indicate that the elution position of LH activity, isolated from chick embryos, corresponded to the molecular weight of about 200 kDa (Turpeenniemi-Hujanen et al. 1980) suggesting a dimer structure for LH. Furthermore, other data indicate that LH1 exists as a homodimer of identical subunits and mutation of cysteine residues does not inhibit non-covalent dimerization of LH1 (Yeowell et al. 2000). No higher molecular weight compounds was observed when human LH3 expressed in E. coli system was analyzed in gel filtration. It may be that LH dimerization required for LH activity is not occurring in E. coli system by the unknown reason, or the molecules having higher molecular weight like dimers form the insoluble precipitate found in the cell pellet, which could explain the lack of LH activity in our experiments. Furthermore, it is known that treatment of LH 1 with endoglycosidase H (Myllylä et al. 1988) and mutation of the glycosylated asparagine of LH1 (Pirskanen et al. 1996) reduced the enzyme activity indicating that the N-glycosylation, which is known to be defective in E. coli cells (Coligan et al. 1995), is important for LH activity. GT and GGT activities are found in our experiments in E. coli cells supplemented with human LH3 or C. elegans LH cDNA, indicating that the cDNAs are producing glycosyltransferases and furthermore suggesting that asparagine linked glycosylation is not required for the activities of the glycosyltransferases.

GT activity could also be found in Sf9 cells infected with baculovirus vector containing human LH3 cDNA. It is noteworthy to recognize that Sf9 cells contain the endogenous GT activity, although there is a lack of GGT activity in these cells. It is also interesting to find that the activity ratio of GT to GGT of the LH3 derived protein is lower in insect cells compared with the data from E. coli cells. The reason for that is not known but it may be due to difference in protein folding or post-translational modification, being the GT activity's favor in bacterial conditions. It is also interesting to notice that in vitro translation of LH3 produces the active GGT, whereas a small amount of activity was recognized in GT assay, after addition of microsomes to the translation mixture. Furthermore, imidazole inhibited GT activity efficiently in the contrary to the mild inhibition of GGT, and there was a small difference in the retardation affinity on gel filtration column between GT and GGT. These data suggest a difference in the behaviour of the glycosyltransferases.

Mutation of the Nucleotide Sequence Encoding LH3

Our mutation analysis gave a direct evidence that amino acid sequence translated from LH3 cDNA sequence is required, and is sufficient, for the GGT and GT activity. If we modified the sequence such that the molecule consisted of only 231 amino acids of LH3 sequence, the protein has no GGT nor GT activity. This result indicated that the amino-terminal portion of the molecule was not sufficient to generate the GGT nor GT activity. Mutation of aspartate at position 669 to alanine totally eliminated LH activity. This change, however, has no effect or even slightly stimulatory effect on the GGT or GT activity, indicating that this amino acid residue is not involved in the catalytic process in the glycosylation reaction. The aspartate to alanine mutation has been indicated to reduce also LH1 activity dramatically and indicates that aspartate 669 is a part of active site of LH1 (Pirskanen et al., 1996). LH1, LH2 and LH3 have a high homology in amino acid sequences, this holds true especially at the carboxy-terminal region of the molecules (Passoja et al., 1998; Valtavaara et al., 1998). Our mutation analysis confirmed that C-terminus was the important region for the LH activity (Hautala et al., 1992; Pirskanen et al., 1996). Interestingly, removal of carboxy-terminal end of the molecule does not totally eliminate the GGT nor GT activity suggesting that the active center of GGT or GT is not co-localising with that of LH. This is also indicated by the finding that imidazole, a histidine analogue, effectively inhibited LH3 activity whereas only a slight inhibition in GGT activity was observed, inhibition of GT activity being between these two. This may be explained by the finding that many conserved histidines in the carboxy-terminal portion of the molecule are required for the LH activity, as indicated in LH1 by in vitro mutagenesis (Pirskanen et al., 1996), and imidazole probably prevents their participitation in the catalytic process. Histidines do not appear to be necessary for GGT activity, however, and therefore imidazole does not inhibit GGT.

There is overall 60% identity between LH isoforms at the amino acid level (Hautala et al., 1992; Valtavaara et al., 1997, 1998; Passoja et al., 1998, Ruotsalainen et al., 1999). The carboxy-terminal portion of the molecule is highly conserved in all three lysyl hydroxylases. In addition, there are regions in the middle of the molecule, which have an identity over 80%. It is remarkable to find that only LH3, not LH1, LH2a or LH2b, possesses GGT and GT activity. It is possible that regions having less identity between LH isoforms, such as amino-terminal end of the molecule and a region covering amino acids 271-356, are responsible for GGT and GT activity of LH3.

The invention will be further understood by reference to the following examples, which are intended to be purely exemplary of the invention and not limited by scope by the exemplified embodiments.

EXAMPLES Example 1 Materials and Methods

Cell Culture and Transfection

Sf9 (Spodoptera frugiperda) insect cells were grown in Sf-900 II Serum Free medium (Life Technologies, Inc.). Expression of recombinant protein was carried out by baculovirus transfer vector (Gruenwald and Heitz 1993, Luckow et al. 1993) in the BAC-TO-BAC Expression system (Life Technologies, Inc.).

Cos-7 cells were grown at 37° C./5% CO₂ in DMEM containing 10% newborn calf serum. 8×10⁵ cells per 100 mm dish or 1×10⁵ cells per 35 mm dish were plated one day before transfection. Cells were transfected by plasmid DNA using FUGENE6 (Boehringer Mannheim). After incubation of cells 0-48 hours the cells were harvested and washed twice with PBS.

Expression of LH3 cDNA in Insect and Eucaryotic Cells

Commercially available baculovirus transfer vector pFastBacI in the BAC-TO-BAC™ expression system (Life technologies, Inc.) was modified to contain human LH1 signal peptide (Hautala et al., 1992) and His₆ tag, and BamHI restriction site for insertion of the desired cDNA, nucleotides 289-2455 of LH3 cDNA (SEQ ID NO 6) (Valtavaara et al., 1998). The construct was confirmed by sequencing. The recombinant protein contains His tag at the amino-terminus after signal peptide cleavage. Insect cells were harvested 0-72 hours after infection and homogenized according to the protocol described earlier (Valtavaara et al., 1997).

Expression of LH3 cDNA was carried out also in eucaryotic expression vector as a LH3 and as LH3-GFP fusion protein. Human LH3 coding sequence covering the nucleotides from 214 to 2447 (SEQ ID NO 5) (Valtavaara et al., 1998) was subcloned into BamHI and XhoI sites of pCDNA3 vector (Invitrogen) and expressed in Cos-7 cells. The coding sequence was also subcloned into EcoRI site of pEGFP-N1 vector (Clontech), where GFP tag forms the C-terminus of the fusion protein. The intervening stop codon (TGA) of LH3 was mutated to TGG (trp) by changing A₂₄₄₃ to G₂₄₄₃ using QuickChange Site-Directed Mutagenesis Kit (Stratagene). In order to keep the reading frame for GFP, T₂₄₄₇ was simultaneously deleted from the sequence (SEQ ID NO 5). The transfected Cos-7 cells were sonicated for 10 sec in ice into a solution of 0.1% Triton X-100, 0.2M NaCl, 20 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.5, a supernatant of the centrifugate (14,000 rpm×30 min) was used in activity measurements.

Expression of LH1 and LH2 cDNA in Insect Cells

Human LH1 signal peptide and His₆ tag was inserted to the cDNA constructs of LH1 and LH2. The baculovirus transfer vector pFastBacI was modified so that human LH1 signal sequence followed by nine nucleotides of the amino-terminal end was ligated to the His₆ tag followed by nucleotides for BamHI restriction site. The human cDNA sequence (LH1 or LH2) (SEQ ID NO 21, 23 and 25) starting from the likely amino-terminal end of the molecule was ligated to the BamHI site of the construct. Two expression constructs were generated for LH2, LH2a and LH2b (SEQ ID NO 23 and 25), both of them covered the nucleotides from 76 to 2267 (Valtavaara et al., 1997). The LH2b construct contained also the alternatively spliced exon sequence (Valtavaara 1999; Yeowell and Walker, 1999) between nucleotides 1500 and 1501 (SEQ ID NO 25). The constructs were confirmed by sequencing. Insect cells were grown and homogenized as described above.

Purification of His-tagged Proteins by Nickel Column

His-tagged recombinant proteins were purified by Ni-NTA Agarose (Qiagen) using batch purification protocol as described by the manufacturer. The agarose was equilibrated with 20 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.8, 0.3 M NaCl, 5% glycerol and 10 mM imidazole. Ni-NTA Agarose was mixed into the cell homogenate with additions of 5% glycerol, 0.3 M NaCl and 10 mM imidazole, and the slurry was incubated for 45 min at 4° C. on a rocking platform, the matrix was washed in a buffer of 20 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.8, 0.3 M NaCl, 5% glycerol and 20 mM imidazole. Elution (incubation of matrix for 10 min in a elution buffer) was carried out in three steps: the elution buffers contained 100 mM, 200 mM and 300 mM imidazole, respectively.

Microscopical Studies

In order to follow expression of LH3-GFP fusion protein in Cos7 cells, the cells transfected with pEGFP-N1-LH3 plasmid DNA were grown-on coverslips. Fourty-eight hours after transfection cells were washed twice with PBS and briefly rinsed in distilled water. The coverslips were mounted on slides using Immuno-mount (Shandon). The expression levels of LH3-GFP fusion protein were visualized directly by fluorescence microscope (Nikon).

The transfected cells were also stained with antibody against protein disulphide isomerase (Höyhtyä et al., 1984). The cells were fixed with 4% paraformaldehyde in PBS pH 7.4 for 20 min, blocked for 1 h in 0.05% Saponin, 0.1% BSA in PBS buffer pH 7.4 (IF buffer), followed by 1 hr incubation at room temperature with a monoclonal antibody (1:100) against protein disulphide isomerase (DAKO). Coverslips were washed three times with IF buffer, and incubated for a further 1 hr with an anti-mouse IgG TRITC conjugate (1: 100) (DAKO). After three washes with PBS and one brief rinse in distilled water, coverslips were mounted on slides by Immuno-mount. Staining was checked under fluorescence microscope.

Immunoprecipitation

Cells transfected with LH3 construct or vector alone were lysed with 5 mM EDTA, 0.5% Triton X-100 in PBS for 30 min at 4° C. Cell extract was pretreated with protein A sepharose CL-4B (Pharmacia) to remove nonspecific binding and then immunoprecipitated with GFP monoclonal antibody (Clontech) or His tag antibody (Sigma) together with protein A sepharose CL-4B beads. The proteins bound to beads were analyzed by SDS-PAGE and immunoblotting or silver staining.

In Vitro Translation

For in vitro translation coding sequence (amino acids 33-738) of LH3 cDNA (SEQ ID NO 17 and 18) was cloned in frame into pCITE 4a vector (Novagen) at EcoRI/XhoI site under T7-promoter. This vector provides the transcribed mRNA with cap independent translation enhancer at 5′ end and a poly(A) tail. This vector produces a translated protein with 6× His tag at the carboxy-terminus of the protein. Plasmid was subcloned into E. coli XL1-blue strain and purified with Mini Plasmid Kit (Qiagen). In vitro translation was performed with single tube protein system 3 kit, STP3 (Novagen) according to manufacturer's protocol. Reaction volumes were scaled down. Briefly, for transcription 200 ng of plasmid were mixed with 3.2 μl of transcription mix in a total volume of 4 μl and incubated at 30° C. 15 minutes. For translation 1.6 μl of ³⁵S-methionine (10 mCi/ml, Amersham) or 0.8 μl of cold methionine in the kit and 12 μl of translation mix were added into transcription reaction and incubated at 30° C. for an hour. Product was analyzed on SDS-PAGE and autoradiography and GGT activity was measured directly in the reaction mixture containing unlabelled methionine.

Activity Measurement

LH activity was assayed by a method based on the hydroxylation-coupled decarboxylation of 2-oxo(1-¹⁴C)glutarate (Kivirikko and Myllylä 1982), synthetic peptide IKGIKGIKG (SEQ ID NO: 27) was used as a substrate. GGT activity was assayed as described elsewhere (Myllylä et al. 1975). The method is based on the transfer of radioactively (tritium) labeled glucose from UDP-glucose to galactosylhydroxylysyl residues in calf skin gelatin substrate and on the specific assay of the product of the enzyme reaction after alkaline hydrolysis.

Other Assays

Western blot analysis was carried out using a monoclonal antibody against His-tag (Sigma) or GFP protein (Clontech). The homogenate of the cells were fractionated in reducing conditions by SDS/10% PAGE, blotted an Immobilon membrane (Millipore) and incubated with the antibodies. Bound antibodies were visualized using the ECL detection system (Amersham Life Science, Inc.) and x-ray film (Eastman Kodak Co). Anti-Mouse IgG peroxidase conjugate (Sigma) was used as secondary antibody.

The QuickChange site-directed mutagenesis kit (Stratagene) was used to make point mutations or deletions to LH3 cDNA sequence. Antibodies used in this study were the following: polyclonal anti-rabbit antibodies against highly purified GGT isolated from chicken embryos (Myllylä, 1981), polyclonal anti-chicken antibodies against a synthetic peptide of human LH3 (Wang et al., 2000), monoclonal anti-mouse antibodies against His-tag (Clontech) and rabbit polyclonal antibodies against the human Dpb11 protein (T. Hillukkala and M. Mäkiniemi, unpublished).

Example 2

Collagen Glucosyltransferase Activity in Cells Transfected with LH3 cDNA

We have prepared a cDNA construct of LH3 for expression of an LH3 protein with a His-tag, which remains at the amino-terminal end of the protein after signal peptide cleavage. Sf9 cells were infected with this construct, and LH and GGT activity were measured in the cells at different time points (FIG. 1A). As seen in the figure, the enzyme activities began to increase about 30 h after transfection. At this same time we could begin to detect GGT activity in the culture medium. We were unable to measure LH activity, however, due to the presence of inhibitory substances in the medium (Krol et al., 1996). The rapid increase of GGT activity in the medium, approximately 50 h after transfection, seen in FIG. 1A, was probably due to cell lysis due to the infection.

We tested the transfections also in mammalian cells, where native LH3 cDNA was used in the transfections (FIG. 1B). A similar time curve for GGT activity was obtained in these cells. When the transfected Cos-7 cells were studied at different time points by Northern hybridization using LH3 cDNA as a probe, the data indicated a clear increase in LH3 mRNA 20 hours after transfection (not shown).

The results presented in Table I indicate the activities measured in one experiment. There is a large increase in GGT activity in the LH3 cDNA transfected Sf9 and Cos-7 cells. The increase is higher in the Sf9 cells, varying from about 120 to 2500 times the background activity in different transfections. Nontransfected Cos-7 cells possess high GGT activity, but after transfection the activity increased to about four to five times the background level. Expression of LH3 in both systems resulted in secretion of enzyme into the medium (Table I). In Sf9 cells, about 25 to 55% of the activity was secreted, whereas in Cos-7 cells the corresponding value was about 80%.

TABLE I GGT activity in Sf9¹ and Cos-7² cells transfected with LH3 cDNA constructs GGT activity³ (dpm/plate) Cells Medium % in medium Sf9 cells Nontransfected   1 000    5 000 n.d. LH3 transfected 2 000 000 12 000 000 35 Cos-7 cells Nontransfected   72 000   69 000 48 LH3 transfected  270 000  1 200 000 82 ¹Sf9 cells were transfected with a construct containing signal peptide of LH1 and His-tag at the amino-terminus of LH3 protein. One plate corresponds to about 10 × 10⁶ cells. n.d. not determined. ²Cos cells were transfected with the construct containing the LH3 including the signal peptide sequence of LH3 (see Material and Methods, Example 1). One plate corresponds to about 1.4 × 10⁶ cells. ³The activity measurements were carried out 72 h (Sf9 cells) and 48 h (Cos-7 cells) after transfection.

Example 3

Intracellular Distribution of Protein Produced by LH3 cDNA

We prepared a construct for a LH3-GFP fusion protein in which GFP, a fluorescent protein, was inserted into the carboxy-terminal end of LH3. The cells transfected with the construct produced a fusion protein, which can be visualized by fluorescence microscopy. The fusion protein was located mainly in the endoplasmic reticulum. In some cells, the fluorescent protein also entered the Golgi complex (not shown) in agreement with the finding that a part of the expressed protein was secreted. When the activity measurements were carried out 48 hours after transfection, the results indicated a two-to three-fold increase of GGT activity in cells (not shown) suggesting the correct three-dimensional conformation of the LH3-GFP fusion protein for the catalysis in the GGT reaction.

Example 4

Purification of the LH3 Protein with a Tag at the Amino-terminal and Carboxy-terminal End

LH3 was expressed in Sf9 cells as a protein with His-tag at the amino-terminus. This enabled us to use nickel column in the purification of the protein from the cell extract of insect cells, because nickel-charged agaroses are developed for the purification of recombinant proteins containing a polyhistidine (6×His) as a tag. Our results indicated that 60% of the GGT activity was bound to the nickel column and all the activity could be eluted out from the column by imidazole. No lysyl hydroxylase activity could be detected in the eluate, however. We have determined that imidazole is a potent inhibitor of lysyl hydroxylase activity. Incubation of His-tagged LH3 for 2 h on ice in the presence of 300 mM imidazole caused almost complete inactivation of the enzyme. Imidazole in the concentration of 100 mM and 10 mM inactivated lysyl hydroxylase activity by 55% and 20%, respectively. In contrast, imidazole in concentrations ranging from 10 mM to 100 mM had no effect on GGT activity, but 300 mM imidazole inhibited GGT activity by 25% (not shown).

The column eluate of the column was analyzed by SDS-PAGE and immunostained by using His-tag antibody in the Western blot. One major band was present on the blot, with a molecular weight of about 85,000 (FIG. 2A). Furthermore, immunoprecipitation of crude Sf9 lysate was carried out by His-tag antibodies, and the precipitate was analyzed by SDS-PAGE and silver staining. Only one protein band with a molecular weight of about 85,000 (FIG. 2B), in addition to immunoglobulin light and heavy chains, was present in the precipitate.

We also used immunoprecipitation to purify the LH3-fusion protein in Cos-7 cells. The fusion protein contained GFP tag at the carboxy-terminal end of the protein. The anti-GFP antibody immunoprecipitated from Cos-7 cell lysate a protein which has a molecular weight of 116,000 (FIG. 2C). This size corresponds to the expected molecular weight of LH3-GFP fusion protein.

Example 5

Cell Free Translation of LH3 cDNA

A cell free system can be used to study the expression of a supplemented DNA in a condition where no other DNA is present. The presence of radioactive amino acid allows detection of even low amounts of the protein expressed in the system. We have used the cell free system in order to rule out the possibility that a DNA sequence other than LH3 cDNA is responsible for the production of GGT activity. As seen in FIG. 3 only one protein (FIG. 3A) was translated in cell free system when LH3 cDNA was added to the incubation mixture. The molecular weight corresponds to that of LH3. Addition of dog pancreas microsomes to the incubation mixture does not change the molecular weight of the translated protein (not shown). The appearance of the protein in the expression was associated with the presence of GGT activity (FIG. 3B) indicating that GGT activity was linked to LH3 protein.

Example 6

Inhibition of GGT Activity by LH3 Antibodies and Antibodies Against Highly Purified Chicken GGT

Polyclonal antibodies were used to study, whether the antibody binding inhibits the catalytic activity of the GGT produced by His-tagged LH3 cDNA construct in Sf9 cells. We used antibodies against a synthetic peptide corresponding to the amino acids 283 to 297 of human LH3 (SEQ ID NO 17 and 18) (Wang et al., 2000). In addition, we used antibodies against chicken glucosyltransferase isolated as a homogenous protein (Myllylä, 1981). As seen in Table II, both antibodies partially-inhibited the GGT activity. However, no inhibition by His-tag antibodies was detected. Antibodies against human Dpb11 protein were used as controls, and these antibodies had no effect on GGT activity.

The antibodies were also tested with GGT prepared from human skin fibroblasts. LH3 and GGT antibodies partially inhibited GGT activity from human skin fibroblasts (Table II), whereas no inhibition was obtained with anti-His antibodies or control antibodies.

TABLE II Inhibition of GGT activity^(a) in LH3 transfected Sf9 cells (Sf9/LH3) and human fibroblasts (FB) by different antibodies Sf9/LH3 FB Antibody (%) p-value (%) p-value Nonimmune serum 100 ± 7  100 ± 24  LH3 84 ± 13 0.043 67 ± 22 0.046 GGT 84 ± 12 0.029 70 ± 3  0.043 His-tag 100 ± 6  ns 92 ± 23 ns Dpb11 101 ± 22  ns 108 ± 27  ns ^(a)4 μl of serum was added to the GGT incubation mixture, the activity in the presence of nonimmune serum was taken as 100%, mean ± SD is expressed. Three to four samples were measured with each antibody. Statistical significance was calculated using two sample t-Test assuming equal variances. ns, not significant.

Example 7

The Effect of Mutations in LH3 on the GGT Activity of the Protein

In order to see what regions of the molecule or which amino acids of LH3 are required for GGT activity, we generated a frame shift in the LH3 after leucine at position 231 by one nucleotide deletion (SEQ ID NO 7). This modification of the construct produced a protein of 356 amino acids (SEQ ID NO 13) (FIGS. 4A), where only the 231 amino acids were similar to LH3 sequence. This protein had neither LH nor GGT activity (Table III). Removal of 217 amino acids from the carboxy-terminus of LH3 inactivated LH activity totally, whereas the protein still retained about one fifth of the GGT activity (nucleotide sequence SEQ ID NO 8, amino acid sequence 14). Mutation of aspartate at position 669 to alanine decreased LH functionality dramatically, whereas it had no effect on GGT activity (nucleotide sequence SEQ ID NO. 9, amino acid sequence SEQ ID NO 15). One nucleotide deletion after the codon for His668 in the LH3 cDNA sequence caused a frame shift in the reading frame and generates a translational stop codon after 30 amino acids. In this protein the last 70 C-terminal amino acids of LH3 are missing from the molecule (nucleotide sequence SEQ ID NO 10, amino acid sequence SEQ ID NO 16). The protein had no LH activity but still retained about half of the original GGT activity. The FIG. 4B shows that the mutations did not cause any remarkable effect in the levels of protein expressions.

TABLE III LH3 and GGT activity in Sf9 cells transfected by mutated LH3 constructs LH3 activity GGT activity Dpm/plate % Dpm/plate % LH3 construct, nonmutated 6000 100 760 000 100 Mutation 1 <300 <5   650 0.1 Mutation 2 <300 <5 180 000 23 Mutation 3 <300 <5 970 000 127 Mutation 4 <300 <5 360 000 47 Mutations 1-4, see FIG. 5. Similar results were obtained in three different measurements.

Example 8

Expression of LH1 and LH2 in Insect Cells do not Generate GGT Activity

The two other lysyl hydroxylase isoforms LH1 and LH2, the latter one in two alternatively spliced forms (LH2a and LH2b) (SEQ ID NO 23 and 25, respectively), were expressed in Sf9 cells in conditions identical to LH3. GGT activity was measured in cell lysates 72 hours after infection (FIG. 5). The production of recombinant proteins was followed by LH activity measurements and SDS-PAGE combined with His-tag antibody staining. The production of recombinant proteins was at the same level (not shown). Although LH activity was present in the cell lysates, none of these recombinant proteins had detectable GGT activity.

Example 9

In vitro Translation of C. elegans Lysyl Hydroxylase cDNA

The coding sequence of C. elegans lysyl hydroxylase cDNA (GenBank # CAA91321.1, starting from amino acid 14, SEQ ID NO 3) was amplified from C. elegans cDNA library (Stratagene) and cloned in frame into the pCITE 4a vector (Novagen) at the EcoRI/XhoI site under the T7-promoter. The plasmid was subcloned into E. coli XL 1-blue strain and purified. In vitro translation was performed with the single tube protein system 3 kit, STP3 (Novagen) according to manufacturer's protocol. For transcription, 200 ng of plasmid was mixed with 3.2 W of transcription mix in a total volume of 4 l and incubated at 30° C. for 15 minutes. For translation, 0.8 μl of cold methionine in the kit and 12 μl of translation mix were added to the transcription reaction and incubated at 30° C. for an hour. GGT activity was measured directly in the reaction mixture.

Example 10

Expression of LH3 cDNA in Insect Cells

Baculovirus transfer vector pFastBacI in the BAC-TO-BAC™ expression system was used to produce LH3 protein in Sf9 cells. The cDNA construct is in Example 1. The recombinant protein contains the His tag at the amino terminus after signal peptide cleavage. The cells were homogenized as described elsewhere (Valtavaara et a. 1997).

Expression of cDNA Constructs in E. coli

PFastBacI constructs for human LH1, LH2a, LH2b and LH3 were cleaved with BamHI and Hind III restriction enzymes and coding regions were subcloned into same site in E. coli expression vector pQE30 containing (His)₆ tag at the amino terminus. Insert for C. elegans LH (corresponding to amino acids 14-730 in cDNA) was generated by PCR and ligated into SacI-PstI site of pOE30 vector. Constructs were transformed into E. coli XL1-Blue strain. Cultures were grown to OD₆₀₀ of 0.6 at 37° C. Protein expression was induced by adding 1 mM IPTG and incubation was proceed at 30° C. for 5 hours. Cells were harvested and stored at −20° C. For activity measurements cell pellet was suspended to lysis buffer (0.4 M NaCl, 0.5% Nonident and 20 mM Tris-HCl pH 7.8, at 20° C.) and incubated in the presence of lysozyme (50 μg/ml), DNAase (10 μg/ml) and RNAase (10 μg g/ml) at room temperature for 30 minutes. Lysis was completed by sonication. Cell debris was pelleted and supernatant was used in the measurements.

Purification of His-tagged Proteins Expressed in E. Coli Cells by Nickel-NTA-AgarosE

Recombinant proteins containing His-tag at their amino-terminal end were purified by Ni-NTA-agarose column (Qiagen). Purification protocol is described in the booklet of manufacturer. The agarose was mixed with soluble fraction of E. coli homogenate and incubated for 45 min at 4° C. with a solution containing 20 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.8, 0.3 M NaCl, 5% glycerol, and 10 mM imidazole. The matrix was washed in the solution containing 20 mM imidazole. The elution was carried out in three steps: the elution buffers contained 100 mM, 200 mM and 300 mM imidazole.

Gel Filtration

The soluble fraction of E. coli homogenate was applied to a Bio-Gel A 0.5 column (0.79 cm×29 cm) or Sephacryl S-300 (0.79 cm×29 cm) equilibrated and eluted with a buffer containing 0.4 M NaCl, 1% glycerol, 20 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.4. Fractions of 0.7 ml were collected and assayed for GT and GGT activity. Protein concentration was determined by measuring the absorbance at 280 and 260 nm using Biophotometer (Eppendorf). Apoferritin (Mw 443.000), amylase (Mw 200.000), albumin (Mw 66.000), carbonic anhydrase (Mw 29.000) and cytochrome C (Mw 12 400) were used as standards to estimate the molecular weight of the proteins responsible for the activities. For SDS-PAGE studies the fractions were precipitated with trichloroacetic acid.

In vitro Translation

The coding region of human LH3 cDNA (amino acids 33-738) or C. elegans LH cDNA (amino acids 14-730) was cloned in-frame into pCITE 4a vector (Novagen) at the EcoRI/XhoI site (human LH3) or SalI/NotI site (C. elegans LH) under the T7 promoter. In vitro translation reaction was performed as described here earlier. In some experiments 1.3 μl of canine pancreatic microsomes (Promega) was added into translation mixture to enhance translation of the product. GT and GGT activities were measured directly in the reaction mixture containing unlabeled methionine.

Activity Measurements

GT and GGT activities were measured by a method based on the transfer of radioactively (tritium)-labeled sugar from UDP-sugar to hydroxylysyl or galactosylhydroxylysyl residues in a calf skin gelatin substrate, respectively (Myllylä et al. 1975). The specific detection of the reaction products was performed after alkaline hydrolysis.

Other Assays

Protein concentration was measured using Biorad protein reagent in microassay and lysozyme as a control. Western blot analysis was carried out using monoclonal antibodies against His tag (Sigma). The cell supernatant was fractionated under reducing conditions on 10% SDS-PAGE, blotted onto an Immobilon membrane (Millipore) and incubated with the antibodies. Anti-mouse IgG peroxidase conjugate (Sigma) was used as a secondary antibody. ECL blotting detection reagents (Amersham Pharmacia Biotech) were used to detect the bound antibodies.

Collagen Glucosyltransferase and Galactosyltransferase Activities in E. coli Cells Transformed with C. elegans Lysyl Hydroxylase cDNA Construct

We tested if the protein produced by LH cDNA would have the GT activity, the activity following LH activity and preceding GGT activity in formation of glucosylgalactosyl-hydroxylysyl residues in collagens. As seen in Table IV, native E. coli cells with only pQE30 vector as well as the cells expressing DHFR, which were used as controls, have only very low residual GGT or GT activity. When the C. elegans LH cDNA was used in the expressions, both GGT and GT activities were present in cell supernatant. GGT activity varied, which is due to different expression levels in various experiments, in a range from 8150 to 183.960 dpm/mg, the corresponding GT activity varied in a range from 12.300 to 159.400 dpm/mg. Similar results were obtained whether or not the expressing E. coli cells were stored frozen for up to two weeks at −20° C. or −70° C., before the activity measurements (not shown).

TABLE IV GGT and GT activity in E. coli cells with C. elegans LH cDNA construct The cells were transfected with a construct containing the cDNA for LH without signal sequence. The cells were cultured in suspension, and after 5 h induction by adding 1 mM IPTG the cells were frozen and stored at −70° C. overnight. The homogenization was carried out as described here earlier, and the activities were measured in the supernatants. Enzyme activities (dpm/mg soluble protein) Cells GGT GT LH cDNA, experiment I 30.700 65.000 LH cDNA, experiment II 21.000 32.100 DHFR cDNA <300 <1600 E. coli cells with pQE30 vector, <300 <1600 without any insert Human LH3, but not LH1, LH2a and LH2b, is Generating Galactosyltransferase Activity when Expressed in E. coli Cells

Human LH isoforms; LH1, LH2 and LH3, LH2 in two alternatively spliced forms (LH2a, LH2b), were expressed in E. coli system, and GT as well as GGT activities were assayed from the cell supernatant. Immunostaining by His-tag antibodies indicated the presence of LH isoforms in the supernatant fraction, although the big part of recombinant proteins were found in the fraction of cell pellet (not shown). As seen in FIG. 12, LH3 was the only one being able to generate GT activity in E. coli cells. The samples were also tested (FIG. 12) in the GGT assay, and the data confirmed our earlier data obtained from baculovirus system that LH3 is the only one generating GGT activity. The data thus reveals that LH3 is a trifunctional protein capable to carry out all the steps in the formation of hydroxylysine linked carbohydrates of collagen: (i) hydroxylation of lysyl residues, (ii) galactosylation of hydroxylysyl residues and (iii) glucosylation of galactosylhydroxylysyl residues.

We also tested if GT and GGT activities can be found in the cell pellet. The pellet was suspended into the homogenization buffer and the suspension was used in the activity assays. The measurements revealed, that about 5% of GT and about 24% of GGT activity was present in the cell pellet.

The Galactosyltransferase Activity is Associated with the Molecules Corresponding to the Size of GGT

Supernatant of E. coli cells expressing human LH3 protein was studied by gel filtration on Bib-Gel A 0.5 column in order to see the molecular weight responsible for the GT activity. As seen in FIG. 13, the GT activity eluted in a wide protein peak having the molecular weight similar but not identical to GGT, GT activity eluting a little earlier than GGT. The elution position of activities corresponded to a molecular weight of about 20-100 kDa, when compared with the elution positions of globular standards. Similar results were obtained when the sample was run through Sephacryl S-300 column (not shown). The addition of protease inhibitors into the homogenization buffer does not have any effect on the activity profiles, suggesting partial proteolysis not being responsible for the wide elution profile in the column.

Collagen Galactosyltransferase Activity Generated by Human LH3 cDNA is Bound to Nickel Column

LH3 protein produced by E. coli expression vector contained His tag at the amino-terminal end of the molecule, and this enabled us to test if GT activity is bound to nickel affinity column. Our data indicate that GT as well as GGT activities were bound to the column (Table V).

TABLE V Binding of GT and GGT activities on Nickel-NTA-agarose E. coli cells were transfected with LH3 cDNA construct, the cells were homogenized and the soluble supernatant fraction was run through the Nickel-NTA-agarose column. The matrix was then washed with the solution containing 20 mM imidazole, eluted with the solution containing 100 mM, 200 mM and 300 mM imidazole, and solutions were used in the activity measurements. GT activity GGT activity Sample dpm dpm cell supernatant^(a) 6.918.000   8.286.000 flow through 68.000   63.000 wash 274.000  3.292.000 100 mM imidazole elution 78.000 6.640.000 200 mM imidazole elution 26.000 3.122.000 300 mM imidazole elution  4.000   450.000 ^(a)The difference between the total apparent GGT activity applied to the affinity column and the total activity eluted in the elution fractions may be partially due to an increase in the activity of the purified matrix.

Elution of the column by 100-300 mM imidazole and analysis of the eluate by immunoblot revealed a protein corresponding to LH3 in size (FIG. 14). Most of the GGT activity were found in the elution fractions, whereas only 1.6% of GT activity was found in the fractions. Our data indicate imidazole as an inhibitor (Table VI) for GT activity, 300 mM solution inhibiting the activity by 60%, the corresponding value for GGT was about 30%. As reported earlier, lysyl hydroxylase was also sensitive to imidazole, 100 mM solution inhibiting LH activity by 55%.

TABLE VI The effect of imidazole on GT and GGT activity of the protein produced in E. coli cells with human LH3 cDNA GT activity GGT activity Imidazole dpm/mg dpm/mg No inhibitor 760.000 667.000  10 mM 795.000 583.000 100 mM 605.000 599.000 300 mM 310.000 459.000 Galactosyltransferase Activity in Other Systems Expressing Human LH3 cDNA

We tested human LH3 cDNA expression also in other systems. The expression with baculovirus vector in Sf9 cells revealed GT activity, varying from 50.000 to 170.000 dpm/mg, over the background activity in different experiments. The GT activity was lower than in E. coli cells, which is probably due to lower expression level in insect cells. It was remarkable to notice that the insect cells have a reasonable high endogenous GT activity (about 80.000 dpm/mg). It should be noted also that expression of human LH1, LH2a and LH2b cDNAs with baculovirus vector in insect cells did not generated GT activity (not shown).

We produced LH3 protein also in cell free condition by using in vitro translation system. We analyzed the proteins by SDS-PAGE and measured the GT and GGT activities from the reaction mixture. There was one protein synthesized in the translation corresponding to LH3 in SDS-PAGE, and the GGT activity was associated with the protein. GT activity measurements were repeated many times without any results. The addition of dog pancreas microsomes to the incubation mixture revealed indisputably a small but repeatable amount of the activity over background in the reaction mixture (550 dpm/translation mixture), however. Similar data was obtained with the C. elegans cDNA.

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1. A method for glycosylating hydroxylysine residues in polypeptides or peptides having these residues, the method comprising: glycosylating a hydroxylysine residue with an enzyme having (a) an amino acid sequence of at least 90% identity to the amino acid sequence set forth to SEQ ID NO: 18, (b) lysyl hydroxylase activity, and (c) glycosyltransferase activity.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: expressing in a host selected from the group consisting of a bacterial host, a yeast host, an insect cell, a plant cell and an isolated animal cell a nucleotide sequence encoding said enzyme having lysyl hydroxylase and glycosyltransferase activities.
 3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the glycosylation is carried out in the presence of additives and factors necessary for the function of the glycosyltransferase enzyme.
 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the enzyme has glucosyltransferase activity and/or galactosyltransferase activity.
 5. The method according to claim 2, wherein said amino acid sequence originates from an organism comprising polypeptides or peptides having hydroxylysine residues.
 6. A method for glycosylating hydroxylysine residues in polypeptides or peptides having these residues, the method comprising: (1) expressing in a host a nucleotide sequence encoding an enzyme having lysyl hydroxylase and glycotransferase activities; and (2) glycosylating a hydroxylysine residue with said enzyme, wherein said enzyme is characterized by having: (a) an amino acid sequence of at least 90% identity to human LH3 (SEQ ID NO: 18); (b) a iysyi hydroxylase activity; and (c) a glycosyltransferase activity.
 7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the enzyme is encoded by a nucleotide sequence selected from the group consisting of: (a) the nucleotide sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO 17; (b) a nucleotide sequence encoding a polypeptide having the amino acid sequence set forth in SEQ IDNO 18; (c) a nucleotide sequence which differs from the nucleotide sequences of (a) and/or (b) due to the degeneracy of the genetic code; and (d) a nucleotide sequence that encodes a polypeptide having an amino acid sequence which shows at least 90% identity to SEQ ID NO
 18. 8. The method according to claim 2, wherein said enzyme is secreted from said host.
 9. The method according to claim 2, wherein the nucleotide sequence encoding lysyl hydroxylase is expressed in E. coli.
 10. The method according to claim 2, wherein the nucleotide sequence encoding lysyl hydroxylase is expressed in an insect cell.
 11. The method according to claim 1, wherein the enzyme is in multimeric or monomeric form.
 12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the hydroxylysine of collagen, collagenous protein, collagen-type protein or other protein or synthetic or partly synthetic protein is glycosylated.
 13. The method according to claim 1, wherein the enzyme has the amino acid sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO:
 18. 14. The method according to claim 2, wherein the nucleotide sequence comprises the sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO:
 17. 15. A method for glycosylating hydroxylysine residues in polypeptides or peptides having these residues, the method comprising: glycosylating a hydroxylysine residue with an enzyme having (1) an amino acid sequence of at least 90% identity to the amino acid sequence set forth to SEQ ID NO: 18 and (2) glycosyltransferase activity.
 16. The method of claim 15, wherein said enzyme does not have lysyl hydroxylase activity due to a genetic modification of SEQ ID NO: 18, and wherein said enzyme has glycosyltransferase activity.
 17. The method according to claim 15 or 16, wherein the glycosylation is carried out in the presence of additives and factors necessary for the function of the glycosyltransferase enzyme.
 18. The method according to claim 15 or 16, wherein the hydroxylysine of collagen, collagenous protein, collagen-type protein or other protein or synthetic or partly synthetic protein is glycosylated.
 19. The method according to claim 6, wherein said enzyme is characterized by having at least 90% identity to amino acids 25-738 of human LH3 (SEQ ID NO: 12). 